The move follows Previsico’s increasing traction in the market, including with Zurich and BT, and escalating demand for its market-leading ‘live flood forecasting’ solution, with hyper-accurate flood forecasting and flood warnings down to individual property level, following increasing flood losses, worldwide.
Climate change is an increasing risk for businesses and people globally, with global flood losses predicted to reach US$1.7trillion/annum by 2050, according to WRI. Surface water flooding is currently the biggest flood risk in the UK, affecting more than 3.8 million people in England compared to river and sea flood risk, which affects 2.4 million people, source The Environment Agency.
The investment is jointly funded by the Midlands Engine Investment Fund and Foresight Williams Technology. The investment by Williams is particularly pertinent to their Formula 1 team, after Sap Grand Prix ended due to track flooding.
Jonathan Jackson, CEO of Previsico, said: “Previsico’s mission is to be the leading provider of cutting-edge flood prediction technology, worldwide. We are gaining great traction in the market and are thrilled that Foresight, the Midlands Engine Investment Fund and Foresight Williams Technology have recognised this, to accelerate our product development, team expansion and sales growth, in the UK and beyond.”
Commenting on the investment, Jordan Lavender, Investment Manager at Foresight, said: “We are really excited to be working with Previsico and helping to develop this market leading technology. Since meeting the team, we have been impressed by both the technical and commercial experience within the management team as well as the interest in the platform from a range of customers. The technology has strong ESG credentials and the company should be well placed to capitalise on some promising opportunities as it looks to grow over the coming years.”
Previsico’s new live flood forecasting solution, launched after successful UK trials, will bring together on the ground IoT sensors across the UK, the latest weather data from IBM and their unique flood modelling capabilities to address the increasing global issue of surface water flooding.
The current Previsico flood warning system, developed over the last 20-years at Loughborough University, whilst a world-leader relies on the accuracy of weather forecasts, which are not always 100% accurate. With the new solution IoT sensors are placed in culverts, streams or small rivers, which are prone to flooding to mitigate the risk of an incorrect weather forecast and feedback live flood data to Previsico, which boosts the accuracy and timeliness of their flood forecasts.
